1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for producing a piezoelectric actuator, a method for producing a liquid droplet jetting apparatus, a piezoelectric actuator, and a liquid droplet jetting apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
There has conventionally been known a piezoelectric actuator which includes: a substrate made of a metal material or the like; a piezoelectric material layer in a thin film form made of a ferroelectric, piezoelectric ceramic material such as PZT (lead zirconate titanate); and an electrode to generate an electric field in the piezoelectric material layer. This piezoelectric actuator utilizes the expansion/contraction of the piezoelectric material layer caused by the action of the electric field to deform the substrate, thereby driving a driven object.
As one method for forming a thin film on a flat surface of a substrate, there has been known an aerosol deposition method (hereinafter, referred to as an AD method) in which aerosol containing a thin film material in a fine particle form and carrier gas is jetted from a film-forming nozzle to the substrate, and by collision energy at this time, the particles are deposited on the surface of the substrate to form the film. Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2004-122341 discloses a method for forming a piezoelectric material layer in a thin film form on a surface of a substrate by using the AD method. According to this film-forming method, while a film-forming nozzle having a slit is moved relative to the substrate, aerosol containing particles of a piezoelectric material and carrier gas is jetted from the slit to the substrate and the particles of the piezoelectric material are deposited on the substrate, thereby forming the piezoelectric material layer on the substrate.